


Welcome to America

by Nehszriah



Series: The Teacher, the Media Man, and the President of the United States [9]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005), The Thick of It (TV)
Genre: Baby Fic, F/M, Gen, Kid Fic, Prompt Fic, gratuitous child-swearing, it all goes downhill from here, or uphill depending how one looks at it, the first half-hour or so in America
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-09
Updated: 2015-12-09
Packaged: 2018-05-05 18:57:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5386793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nehszriah/pseuds/Nehszriah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Courtney picks up the Oswald-Tuckers from the airport and finds that though you can take the Scot out of Scotland, that doesn't mean he leaves his coarser ways at home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Welcome to America

**Author's Note:**

> Here's another long-standing prompt for this 'verse, which I only just now got around to posting.
> 
> Takes place after the bulk of the main story, after the end if you don't count the distant finale.

t ended up taking eight months before she saw them in-person again.

The moment Daniel saw Courtney he began flailing in protest at being carried. Malcolm had to put him down to run the remaining length between them.

“Ahnt Nii! Ahnt Nii!” the little boy giggled as he was picked up and spun around. He buried his face into her shoulder as his parents approached, mother amused and father grouchy.

“How was the flight?” Courtney asked. She gave Clara and Malcolm both a hug and walked with them over to the luggage claim. “No one bother you or anything?”

“No; Daniel was asleep for most of the time and we didn’t get so much as a second glance in Heathrow,” Clara replied. “We’re just the average British couple traveling with our son.”

“Still irritates me that we aren’t in D.C. proper,” Malcolm grumbled sourly. He hefted the bags off the rail and popped up the one’s handle while slinging the other over his shoulder. “Why isn’t everything _together_ in this fucking place?”

“When you’ve got the elbow room, you might as well use it,” Courtney shrugged. “Americans build out, not up.”

“So then New York City is an anomaly,” Malcolm muttered.

“For the most part, yes.” Courtney tickled Daniel’s side and pulled a lolly out of her pocket, which she unwrapped and gave to the boy in her arms. “I’ve been touring the bits between the coasts in the meantime and while there are cities and towns, there’s also stretches where there’s not a soul for miles and the amount of time it takes to cross London brings you only halfway across someone’s property.”

“That’s disgusting.”

Courtney and Clara both gave one another amused looks as they watched Malcolm fume towards the terminal exit. They all piled into a car that was waiting for them and set off for the new Oswald-Tucker residence.

Before long, however, Malcolm and Daniel both began to grow antsy. After being confined in an airplane for hours on end, the car ride had to be put on hold after half an hour to let the boys roam around the field next to a parking lot.

“Are you sure we’ll be able to commute from this far out?” Clara wondered as she and Courtney leaned against the car. The driver was in the gas station fetching some snacks, leaving the two to talk.

“Of course—some people commute from further out,” the younger woman said. “The bus and train system is better here than in other areas, and travel by car isn’t that bad. You get used to it.”

“That doesn’t sound very encouraging.”

“Just wait until I announce my candidacy on the national level; Texas alone is almost the size of Europe. Maryland’s sort of like a starter state, to get you into the idea.”

“Malcolm will never forgive you.”

“Of course he will, once he gets the state-level interns to fall into line. Besides, it could be a long time yet before I’m in enough to start zeroing in on the goal.” Courtney looked up at the sky, seeing the moon in partial profile as its rise coincided with the sun’s. “By then I want to be there.”

“ _‘President Woods, do we kill the moon’_?” Clara chuckled. “That would be interesting.”

“Daniel can be my running mate by then, if the boy plays his cards right.” She straightened as the driver came back with bottled water and hot tea for the adults and a juice box for Daniel, along with a pack of cookies to tide them all over. Taking the snacks thankfully, Courtney called Malcolm back.

“New continent, new list of weeds that make me itch,” the man grumbled. He took the unopened juice box for his son and passed it to the boy, who smushed it against his father’s face.

“Fuck you,” Daniel said cheerily, plain as could be. Malcolm grinned and hugged his son proudly. Clara, however…

“ _Daniel Malcolm Oswald-Tucker_ , don’t use that sort of language,” she snapped. The toddler cringed at the use of his full name, hugging his juice protectively as he was passed over to his mother. “You better be _glad_ we aren’t anywhere near a bar of soap or it would be in your mouth faster than you can even _think_ about apologizing!” Clara went back into the car and secured Daniel in his chair, livid and embarrassed at the entire thing. The driver got back in the front seat while trying to stifle a snicker, while Malcolm and Courtney nodded at one another.

“Looks like I’ll always have a dash of Caledonia at my side, won’t I?” she snorted.

“Naw—you’ll be flanked until they take away the keys to my old-man motor scooter,” he replied with a wink. “Now come on; let’s get going before Daniel has the chance to demonstrate some of the other phrases he’s picked up from me and _I’m_ the one who eats soap the first day in our new home.”


End file.
